


Cutting Words (Lance Tucker one shot)

by revengingbarnes



Category: The Bronze (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff, One Shot, imagine, lance is an asshole but what else is new
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 13:47:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16975731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revengingbarnes/pseuds/revengingbarnes
Summary: You’re Lance's new student, and you’re super shy. He's always angry at you, snapping for the smallest mistakes. One day, it gets too much and you break down.





	Cutting Words (Lance Tucker one shot)

The beam in front of you had never looked so intimidating.

You took a deep breath, thinking back to the time you weren’t scared of gymnastics, but actually genuinely enjoyed it. A time when you lived for the routines you had to do and the people you wowed along the way. You had been sure this was your passion. Now it just felt like a burden.

That was a time before Lance Tucker had shown up to the local gym claiming to be your new coach.

You had been over the moon when you found out he’d be training you. A gold and silver medalist as your coach? You were sure to win at the Toronto Games. So you had left with him to Los Angeles, where you began your training for the games under his wing.

But from the get go, Lance was extremely hard on you. Nothing you did seemed right to him, and after making you do the same thing again and again a hundred times, he would finally be satisfied. But even then he gave you no encouragement. You had told yourself over and over from the beginning that he was just being harsh because he wanted you to be good. But now, three months into your coaching, you were worn to the bone. The wall you had built to take Lance’s insults had crumbled and everything he said stung like a thousand needles. You had to hold everything in, try and not be angry or start crying, but you knew it wouldn’t be long before you completely cracked.

You let out the breath you had inhaled, eyes focused straight on the spot on the beam where your hands would go in your first handstand. You tried not to think about Lance’s eyes on your back, but every muscle seemed to be aware of his presence, and they were tensing up already. That was bad. You couldn’t do your best if you were tense.

You went ahead anyway, going into your first handstand. You were barely on your feet when you heard Lance’s cutting voice.

“Pathetic. Do it again.”

You gritted your teeth, swaying a little when you lost your balance because of his sudden interruption. Slowly moving back to the edge of the beam, you started again. Surprisingly, you made it halfway through the routine before Lance broke into your space again.

“No! That’s all wrong. Keep your back straight!”

 _I can’t keep my back straight in this position!_ Your mind screamed, but you dared not speak. You were shy as it is, but Lance intimidated you on a whole new level. Instead, you just broke your stance and walked back to the edge to start again.

About half an hour later, Lance was finally satisfied with every aspect of your five minute routine.

“Well, this is as good as it’ll get.” He muttered, a scowl on his face. “We’re done for today. Go home. And be here at 5am tomorrow.”

You sighed when Lance walked off, feeling tears pool in your eyes. God, you idealized him so much. He was so good at what he did. And all you wanted to do was impress him. But you couldn’t even do that. Lance hated your performances. He only let you go because he declared it acceptable. You wanted to scream and pull your hair out. You wanted to get so much better but it just wasn’t working. You couldn’t understand what you were doing wrong.

The walk back was slow. Music played through your earphones and you tried to calm down. You thought of your bed back in your shared apartment, and your mind eased slightly from the anticipation.

The apartment you were temporarily living in while you trained in Los Angeles was small, but it was clean and sufficiently put together. You pulled out your earphones as you entered, already hearing the TV playing one of the many reality shows your roommate liked watching. She was also the owner, so she could play them as loudly as obnoxiously as she wanted and you couldn’t do anything about it. It was really hard getting a place, and you didn’t want to be kicked out for complaining too much.

Speaking of getting kicked out.

Your eyes fell on the suitcase sitting in the middle of the marble floor. Your suitcase, to be precise. It was open, and oozing with haphazardly tossed in clothes, clothes which you recognized as yours. Your eyebrow raised up in shock and you turned to your roommate lounging on the couch and eating ice cream. Her eyes turned to you.

“Oh hey.” She said, before turning back to the TV.

“Hi?” You replied. “What’s all this?” You gestured to the luggage.  _Your_ luggage.

“Oh right.” She said. “Yeah, you have to move out.”

Your mouth dropped open. “W-what?”

She nodded as if it was no big deal. “My friend is moving in, so you have to move out.”

You let out a little shocked laugh, but you know she was serious. You had known her for about a month. She was straight forward and brutally honest. She wouldn’t joke about this. In other words, she was a bitch.

“I- right now? I have nowhere to go!”

She studied you a bit, lips pursing. “Well, okay. She’s coming this weekend so I guess you can stay for four more days.”

You were still gaping at her, but managed to mechanically nod your head. Your mind was reeling with the news. You had to find a new apartment in four days. Four days. It took you a  _month_  to find this one.

Your tired muscles were weighing you down, so all you did was drag your suitcase back to your room and plop down on the bed after undressing. It was no use worrying about it now. You couldn’t do anything about it so late. Sleep wasn’t a problem with how exhausted you were. You passed out as soon as your head hit the pillow.

……………….

It was only when you saw your suitcase still on the floor in the living room the next morning that you remembered your roommate’s ultimatum. And safe to say, it put you in an even worse mood than you already were in.

You sighed as you closed the door behind you and locked it, taking in the absolute silence of the building around you. Your footsteps echoed as you walked down the stairs. Most people hadn’t even gotten up to go to work yet.

As much as you admired Lance, he was annoying in several different aspects. But by far what angered you the most was being woken up at the ass crack of dawn to go to his gym. You hated it. You couldn’t stand it.

Your mind jumped back to the time when you would wake up this early but still be energized and ready to do what you did best at the gym. Except, now you felt like what you did wasn’t your best. And so it just felt like another weight on your shoulders. Many times you had thought about quitting gymnastics since you’d lost all your passion, but you knew Lance would chew you alive if you did that. He was investing in you, and if he didn’t get results, you were sure he would sue you for all you were worth. Which lately you felt like wasn’t a whole lot.

The walk to the gym was as brisk and fast as your tired muscles could make it. You looked down at your watch as you entered the building to see that you were already 5 minutes late. And 5 minutes would go by changing into your gear, so that was 10 minutes late.

Unsurprisingly, Lance was pissed as all hell when you finally made your way across the hardwood floor to where he stood. His hands rested on his hips, white shirt fitted snugly on his chest under his red jacket. A silver chain shone around his neck, hanging down to his chest. If you weren’t dreading what was coming so much, you would have taken a moment to admire how good he looked.

“You’re late.” His voicing had a cutting tone. His jaw was clenched, and you were sure he was going to blow a fuse at any moment. Great. Just what you needed to start your already crappy day. A Lance that was going to be an even bigger asshole than usual.

You knew Lance would through a fit if you said sorry, claiming you didn’t mean it and that ‘sorry is not going to bring those ten minutes back.’ So instead, you did your best to look extremely ashamed and guilty, even though you didn’t feel it. Apparently he bought it, because he sighed as instructed you to start stretching.

You had been right. Lance was even more mean than he was every day. He was positively seething. Two steps into every move, he would stop you, calling it terrible and saying things like ‘if I was on the judging panel watching this, I’d claw my eyes out.’

It stung, of course. Today more so than usual. For many days, Lance had been testing your patience. And with your impending homelessness still floating in the back of your head, today became the day you officially broke down.

It happened during your routine on the bars. You had just completed what your previous coach would have called a flawless set, but as soon as you turned to Lance, you steeled yourself for the shitstorm he would throw at you. And boy did he.

“Nothing. No improvement. It’s just as bad as usual. I don’t get it, do you  _hear_  what I say or does it all just go over your head? You’ve got such a shitty focus and that landing was the clumsiest thing I’ve ever seen. I-”

Lance was cut short though, because by then you feet were already moving, turning until your back was facing him and then walking briskly away. Your throat had tightened and a sob was bubbling just at the end of it. Your heart squeezed almost painfully, frustration reaching its boiling point. You broke into a run towards the locker rooms. Briefly, you thought you heard Lance call your name, but you didn’t care. You sobbed loudly as soon as you entered the humidity of the room, collapsing on the bench.

You cried and cried, face scrunched and tears streaming down your face. You were so exhausted, both mentally and physically, you couldn’t even think straight. So you just cried.

You heard the door of the locker room squeak open slowly, making you cover your face with your hands, knowing it was Lance. For so long you had wanted to be strong in front of him. And now you were crying like a baby. You waited for him to call you whiny and pathetic, but it didn’t come. Instead, he sat down silently next to you.

You peeked through your hands at him, only to have him already looking at you. You sat hunched over, hoping he wouldn’t see you and cursing the fact that your hair was tied back and couldn’t hide your face.

“Fifty six days.” He said suddenly.

You looked back up at Lance, eyebrows furrowing.

“You didn’t protest for fifty six days. Today you reached your limit. I gotta say, I expected you to start screaming and crying after the first week.”

He gave a signature smirk, but you didn’t laugh. Mainly because you were still trying to process what his words were implying. He sighed.

“Do you remember the week when I made you come and train in the evening shift as well?”

You nodded. About two weeks ago, you’d increased gym hours by coming at nights too. At that time, the gym was crowded with all of Lance’s other students. Immediately when you started, the first thing you noticed was the lack of cutting comments when Lance worked with those girls. He mostly had good things to say. His critiques would be milder. He was overall much less mean to them than he was to you. Of course, that did nothing to boost your quickly lowering confidence.

Lance looked at you now. “The only reason I was never hard on those girls was because I didn’t really care about what they did.”

You frowned, unable to comprehend what he said.

“You have something very special, Y/N.” He continued. “You’re the only person in this godforsaken gym that can actually go to those games and win.” His eyes darted between yours. He was sitting very close. You could feel his body heat despite the heat of the locker room.

“I was hard on you because I know you can take it. Because I want you to be perfect. I want you to reach your full potential. Be the best that you can be.”

You let out a sarcastic laugh that you couldn’t help. “You weren’t being hard. You were being a downright asshole.”

Lance laughed, shrugging.

“Okay, I admit, maybe I wasn’t going about my intentions in the best way. And for that, I’m sorry.”

You were shocked that Lance had apologized. You didn’t think he was the type that would. His ego seemed too big to allow that.

“I- okay.” You sighed, shrugging. “I didn’t really mean to lose it. I just- it’s all so much. Your remarks and being so far from home. I miss my family and I don’t have any place to live so I’m about to be homeless. I really don’t know-”

“Wait wait wait.” Lance cut you off, scowling. “Homeless? What do you mean?”

You pursed your lips in distaste. “My roommate decided it would be okay to kick me out on a short notice. So I don’t have any place else to go.”

Lance was staring at you in shock now. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”

You shifted a little. “Well, I just- I was kind of scared of you?” It came out like a question.

Lance let out an exasperated sigh. “Y/N, I brought you here. You’re my responsibility. If I had known apartments were being such an issue for you, I’d have stepped in. You’ll get a new apartment, okay? Don’t worry about that.”

Your mouth dropped open. “Really?”

Lance nodded, smiling. “Yeah. And what’s all this crap about being scared of me? C’mon that’s going a little too far.”

You laughed a little, feeling a weight lift of your shoulders. You felt strange, conversing with Lance like this. You’d never talked freely with him before. So the casual talk threw you off a bit. Suddenly, you were remembering the little crush and the huge admiration you’d harbored for the man ever since you had seen him.

“Well, you weren’t exactly the nicest person.” You replied.

Lance smiled a bit when you looked playfully at him. He leaned a little towards you, placing a hand on yours to squeeze it. You felt yourself tense up a little before relaxing again.

“I explained that.” He said. “I did it because you were amazing. Brilliant. Better than all my other students.”

You felt a giddy smile take over your face at his words, feeling your inside bubble with butterflies at how he was looking at you. Even though his cocky smirk was on his face, his eyes were softer than ever before.

“It’ll take some time to believe it.” Your voice was low as you stared at him. He was closer to you than he’d ever been. Before you could think about it, your eyes darted down to look at his rosy lips. You looked back up immediately, but he seemed to have caught you, as his smirk grew wider.

“I know one way I can make you believe it.” Your breath hitched at his voice, which was now a few octaves deeper. He was openly staring at your lips as you parted them. Unable to help yourself, and praying it initiated something, you licked them, running your tongue over your bottom lips slowly.

That seemed to do it, because Lance groaned before he closed the little gap between you two, lips crashing into your on earnest. You moaned immediately at the feeling, at the fire behind it. That seemed to be all the encouragement he needed, because his hands found their way on your hips, tugging until you were moving, swinging a leg over his body to sit on his lap. His hands ran over your waist before moving lower to grab handfuls of your ass. You gasp and his tongue slid into your mouth, hot and wet as it glided over your own.

You sighed and your hands tangled in his hair, tugging. He groaned at the feeling, pulling away. You nearly came at the sight, his eyes blown, pupils dilated, cheeks flushed and lips swollen. His hands were already tugging on your shirt. He smirked before he spoke again.

“Let me prove to you how brilliant I think you really are.”


End file.
